Profession collection manager

Collection managers ensure the care and preservation of objects within cultural institutions, like museums, libraries, and archives. Collection managers, along with exhibition curators, and conservators, play a very important role in collections care. They can be found in most large museums.

Would you like to know what kind of career and professions suit you best? Take our free Holland code career test and find out.

Personality Type

• Conventional / Investigative
• Enterprising / Conventional

Knowledge

• Museum databases

  The tools and processes involved in working with museum databases.

• Conservation techniques

  The procedures, instruments, techniques, materials and chemicals used in conservation and archiving.

• Art history

  The history of art and artists, the artistic trends throughout centuries and their contemporary evolutions.

• Collection management software

  Be familiar with specialised collection management software used to document and keep record of the museum collection.

Skills

• Advise on loans of art work for exhibitions

  Working together with curators and museum collection managers, a registrar evaluates the condition of art objects for exhibition or loan purposes. The registrar also decides whether or not an artwork is able to withstand the stresses of travel or exposition.

• Monitor museum environment

  Monitor and document environmental conditions in a museum, in storage as well as exhibition facilities. Make sure an adapted and stable climate is guaranteed.

• Use ICT recources to solve work related tasks

  Ability to choose and use ICT recources in order to solve related tasks

• Provide project information on exhibitions

  Provide information on the preparation, execution and evaluation of exhibitions and other artistic projects.

• Handle art

  Work directly with objects in museums and art galleries, in coordination with other museum professionals, to ensure that artworks are safely handled, packed, stored and cared for.

• Interact with an audience

  Convey the artistic values of the art form(s). Respond to the reactions of your audience and involve them.

• Respect cultural differences in the field of exhibition

  Respect cultural differences when creating artistic concepts and exhibitions. Collaborate with international artists, curators, museums and sponsors.

• Document museum collection

  Registrars are concerned with documentation and record keeping of museum collections. Documentation includes information about an object's condition, provenance, materials, and all of its movements within the museum or out on loan.

• Assess object condition

  Work together with the collection manager or restorer, to evaluate and document the condition of a museum object for a loan or an exhibition.

• Compile detailed collection inventory

  Compile a detailed inventory of all items in the collection.

• Create collection conservation plan

  Create a comprehensive, high-level overview conservation plan for the collection.

• Cope with challenging demands

  Maintain a positive attitude towards new and challenging demands such as interaction with artists and handling of artistic artefacts. Work under pressure such as dealing with last moment changes in time schedules and financial restraints.

• Implement risk management for works of art

  A registrar determines risk factors to an art collection and mitigates them. Risk factors for artworks include vandalism, theft, pests, emergencies, and natural disasters. It is the responsibility of a registrar to develop and implement strategies to minimise these risks.

• Establish high standards of collections care

  Establish and maintain high quality standards in collection care, from acquisition to conservation and display.

• Supervise artefact movement

  Supervise any movement of museum artefacts and ensure their security.

• Communicate in English in a competent way

  Competent use of English; R351refers to level C1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB